Bristol Library offers Free Music Downloads

December 13, 2011

BRISTOL, VA — The Bristol Public Library is introducing a new service to its patrons: free music downloads with Freegal Music. Freegal is downloadable music service which provides access to the catalog of artists in Sony Music Entertainment.

The Bristol Public Library has joined the Library Ideas' network of Public Library websites that offer access to songs from Sony Music's catalog of legendary artists. The service will allow the Bristol Public Library to increase the size and diversity of its collection by offering access to hundreds of thousands of songs.

"We're trying this out to see how people like using their library cards to get a limited amount of content for keeps," said Jud Barry, BPL Executive Director. "We're actually doing something similar with books in our teen book clubs — the people who participate get to keep the books. But mostly this is the kind of experiment that's going on with libraries and digital content. I wouldn't be surprised if something similar happens with e-books."

Registered Bristol Public Library cardholders can download three songs per week with their barcode and pin number. Freegal works with any MP3 device, including iPods.

Go to the "Resources' page on the BPL website to log on and download music! The best part is these songs are for the cardholders to keep!